These People Deserve Each Other

If you haven’t been paying attention to the ebbs and flows of the “Reformed” Christian Nationalist ecosystem over the last few months—and why would you, unless you’re an intellectual masochist—take a minute to read my post from just over a month ago on how the movement, after two and a half years, has predictably descended into open white nationalism.

Two years ago, when I launched my book, which proves that Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism is a manifesto of secular ethno-nationalist and authoritarian political theory shoehorned into Calvinist Two-Kingdoms theology, bolstered by a Kantian use of “natural law,” someone who had been in the Christian media business for years gave me a warning. I was told that my theory would ultimately be proven correct, but, as soon as it was, and going after Christian Nationalism was considered politically safe in conservative Christian media circles, people from the very camps who derided me for claiming it was a white-nationalist movement would swoop in to make a name for themselves as the spokespeople of anti-Christian-Nationalism. Even worse, I was told that the Christian media junkies would buy it, hook, line and sinker.

This person was absolutely correct.

In the last few months, a whole host of people whom nobody had ever heard of or, even worse, were known quantities that were openly friendly to the worst elements of Christian Nationalism for the last few years, have decided to build their brand on “exposing” the evil of the movement. It couldn’t be more obvious that their aim is to make a name for themselves, now that being a conservative (or even reactionary) Christian podcaster against a Christian Nationalism that is now publishing books on “race realism” is politically safe, in a way that it wasn’t just less than a year ago. Every one of these men is constantly pumping their latest podcast appearance or gotcha article for a Christian publication. Every move is nakedly designed to help them break into the business, or maintain their position, as much as it’s meant to criticize Christian Nationalists.

Even worse, most of these characters still hold to the overwhelming majority of the Christian Nationalist belief set! One, while making an entire brand around publicly fighting Stephen Wolfe on Twitter, continues to praise Doug Wilson, Wolfe’s publisher, who pumped Wolfe’s book on Tucker Calson’s show and who is still slated to put out an abridged version. Others stand against the racism and antisemitism of the movement—all well and good—but advocate for practically all of the authoritarian political concepts. Prominent pundit James White will choose to debate an open neo-Nazi on the subject of whether certain ethnic groups can be fully sanctified—because that’s how stupid the space is now—but will refuse to call Joel Webbon, whose conference he headlined just two years ago, a false teacher, even though he’s been caught on camera saying the exact same thing. An anti-abuse advocacy podcaster who just came on the scene last year, quickly becoming popular in that space, posted the personal contact information of a female children’s ministry director, opening her up to hate mail, for no other reason than she works with a Christian Nationalist whom he was trying to egg into a public Twitter fight. These are not men of principle, they are narcissists jockeying for attention from a limited media market, while selectively choosing whom to attack, in order to maintain political alliances.

On one end, I guess I should be happy; there’s at least a little bit of house-cleaning happening within the reactionary “Reformed” media space. Yet, I’m not happy, I’m disgusted. I’m fed up with the faith I know to be unfathomably beautiful, built on that Law written on everyone’s heart that seeks peace, love, and everything good, be publicly represented in our media-saturated culture by malignant charlatans. I am sickened by how the Christian media industry works—not just in the reactionary quarters, but all around—and how it’s populated by the most self-serving and intellectually dishonest people imaginable, tainting the discipleship of countless Christians. I have been struggling with being seen as even on the edges of it for the last few years. I’m tired of bad actors accusing me of trying to break into the industry, because they cannot perceive anyone in this arena having motivations other than theirs. I just want the truth to prevail, but that’s not going to happen in the areas of the church where most Americans, believers and unbelievers alike, get their conception of Christianity.

I pray for the people doing this to the faith, but I hate what they do with a righteous anger. I refuse to play by their rules. There is no advancement against Christian Nationalism that is worth compromising my integrity. God owns the ends and a disciple must only be concerned with maintaining honorable means. The only way I could ever prove that the last two years of my writing and advocacy was genuine, and that I’m not like these horribly behaving people, is to disappear from relative obscurity back into the total obscurity I had two years ago, so I shall.

May God bless you all, and may His peace be upon you.